No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on March 4, 2017

When I was a child, I assumed that you moved every couple of years. This was during the time that my father finished his doctorate and then did his post-doc at Harvard. My mother finished up her masters. They had an agreement that where ever they moved, they would both have to get tenure to make it a place of permanence. This happened in Atlanta where my father got his tenure at Georgia Tech and my mother at Emory.

Neither me nor my brothers or sister spend an entire year in the same house. Patrick came closest but we moved into the house that became the house I would say I grew up in on his first birthday.

To me moving around was not a big deal. I did it for a while stage-managing. The idea of going off to live somewhere away from my family was not an alien one to me. I found out later that my brothers and sister had really no memory of living anywhere else but Atlanta.

Yesterday marked the 19th year I have living in the house I am currently living in and it is the longest I have lived in the same place in my life.

Permanence is a strange thing. In some ways there is a finality to it. But there is always change even in a state of permanence like I have right now.

I have friends who have been part of my life for more than 20 or 30 or even 40 years of my life. I have one friend that we are heading towards 50 years of friendship. That’s a long time to be part of someone else’s life. We have gone through good times and bad. We have been there for each other especially when we needed each other the most. There have been health scares and a couple of deaths along the way but these people have a permanent place in my heart even those who have passed.

Peter and I have been together for 19 years now and will be married for 16 in May. I can’t think of my life without him. The time before I knew him is becoming less of my total time on earth with each passing year.

I find myself in a state of permanence that I thought I would never find when I was younger. I just assumed I would be living my vagabond lifestyle my entire life. I still consider myself a bohemian considering what goes on in my life. It sure is not boring. I do have a home base that I go back to after the adventure is done.

I am grateful for a sense of permanence.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 3, 2017

I think I am running out of clever titles as the three previous attempts at something new were all on my hard drive as essays already in existence.

I am trying to correct my spelling and grammar without consulting the spell checker these days. According to what I have been reading, it is a good way to engage the brain and will help with cementing the correct spelling in one’s head. I can remember a day when I had my dictionary next to me to check on the spelling of words as I wrote various papers.

It is interesting to see the cycles at the gym. Over the years I know which months are harder to get to the machines and weights I need and which are easier. March is a much easier month for me to be able to do my routines without having to wait for someone to finish something up. January can be tricky because of all the people who decide to resolve to be fitter that year. By February we have the shakedown to the people who are going to keep it up and the people who will probably try again next year. May is the next time I expect an influx of people as some try to get ready for swimsuit season. The summer sees more teenagers in the weight room. Fall is pretty quiet. When it turns cold we get the folks who run and do physical activity outdoors as much as they can. Then we are back to the New Year.

It does amaze me how one person leaving their weights and exercise equipment all over the place sets the tone for everyone else and they don’t pick up after themselves. Also not putting things back makes it harder on the rest of us who are trying to do our routines and have to pause to find out where X went off to. Yesterday it was one of the medicine balls that wandered off. Apparently it wandered into another part of the building or possibly out of building since the staff hadn’t a clue where it was. And this with a sign that says, “Please do not remove equipment from the exercise room” but then that is next to the sign that says “Please re-rack your weights” which a number of people ignore anyway. I swear more people think they have to be the exception to the rule these days than ever before.

Traffic is something else that ebbs and flows around here. Not as much as it use to since they have build apartments and condos in the village and near the village that has added about a third more cars consistently in the area. I am use to the traffic slow downs May to September as people come through to go to Fire Island but this is getting a little ridiculous. Trips that took maybe 5 minutes by car are now 10 to 15 due to traffic and some strangely timed traffic lights. Walking is not much better as the drivers seem to think that pedestrian crossings don’t apply to them even though there are big signs informing them otherwise.

I am sad to see the end of standard time is just around the corner. It means that Caroline has to get up when it is still dark in the morning for a couple of weeks. I really feel sorry for all the kids at the other end of the time zone who have to walk to their bus in the dark. Can’t we just get rid of it? It does us no good and doesn’t do the things that they say it makes easier.

Today is going to be a creative day for me with a little cleaning tossed in. It is cat box day so that needs to be done. Might want to tackle another corner of the room that needs cleaning. Peter and I have a couple of errands we need to run today. Caroline has rehearsal afterschool and we need to find her some costume pieces this weekend. We are talking conservative business suits that a principle of a school would wear which is easy with the thrift store having reopened with a large parking lot.

This weekend we are not going anywhere. I have a friend coming out here for lunch and conversation and fabric shopping. Next weekend Peter is off to a convention.

Things start to speed up again for us from there.

So I will take the time to breath and center before we move onto the next thing.

I am grateful for back ways that let me get where I am going .

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 2, 2017

It took me a bit to sort out that it is Thursday.

Getting back from vacation can screw with one’s sense of time.

The only way I sorted out the day of the week is that Peter bowled yesterday and it was Ash Wednesday so that was a big clue.

If you asked me what day it was when I was at Disney World, I would have consulted my phone.

It is nice to have some time that one is not worried about time.

However now I have to get back into sync with the calendar and what’s next on my docket.

I was surprised to discover that we slid into March without a by your leave.

Yesterday was a bit of success as in that the laundry is done and put away from the trip and one corner of the living room.

I did keep my Internet looking down to an hour, which made me realize how many times I just go to check something and end up down the electronic rabbit hole.

This weekend Caroline and I are going to make a niffler. I am taking a hedgehog pattern and a platypus pattern and mushing them together. Should be interesting.

I also plan to fix the puppets so I can send them out Monday. Finish another puppet for a friend who has been very patience with me. Then onto Dragon Con puppets and the puppet slam.

The NFL combine has started. I am trying to figure out why we still need it considering all the metrics that the scouts have collected on these kids over their college careers. It is a meat market that is now out there for the public to watch. I find it embarrassing for the young men that have to prove themselves over a week’s time to their potential employers. I think if it happened behind closed doors I might not have as big a problem with it but the NFL has turned it into a spectacle for the public.

Spring Training is here and soon the season will start. I am looking forward to the baseball season. Peter has two sports seasons in his mind, baseball and the rest of the year.

Basketball is winding up into the playoffs, which seem to go for months before a winner is crowned.

Hockey has also seemed to expand their season.

Lots of sports for those who love watching sports.

Today is a gym day and then I plan to clean up another one of the seven corners of our living room.

I am grateful for calendars.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 1, 2017

Today is the beginning of the Catholic Lenten season.

Last night on Jeopardy the answer to final jeopardy was ‘what are you giving up for Lent?’

That is a question that is being asked a lot today. But it is not just giving something up, it can also be doing something for the betterment of all.

Caroline and I had a long discussion about what we might do and came to similar conclusions that we both spend too much time on the Internet just poking about so we are limiting ourselves to an hour on the Internet a day. This can be broken up into 15 minute segments or a half hour or an hour all at once, but it will be limited.

There are some other things that we have agreed to but that’s between the two of us. Personally I am going to try to spend more time being more mindful of that which is around me. Meditation will be part of that.

To me this is not like a New Years resolution that, from the state of our gym, is something you think about in January but by March it is but a memory.

If I don’t achieve my goal, I will just try harder to do so. We fall down and we get back up and try again.

Lent is a marathon not a sprint and we have this time to reflect on things that we really don’t seem to think about the rest of the year.

So those who are taking part of this, may you have an easy Lent.

I am grateful that my daughter and I can talk about these subjects with each other.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 28, 2017

Peter, Caroline and I went to Farpoint and had a great time then drove to Orlando, Florida and spent a little less than a week at Disney and Universal.

We had a lovely time. Only one day where the weather was against us but we worked around the series of severe storms that flooded the Magic Kingdom, which Caroline and I were in at the time.

Today is Fat Tuesday, which is the last day of Mardi Gras leading into tomorrow and the beginning of Lent. Caroline and I have been having some discussions about what we are giving up for Lent or what we are going to do for Lent. I think we both have it sorted out.

Normally this would be a crafty Tuesday entry, but I am bereft of any ideas for it at this time. Hope to have something for it next week.

Today is also resort the house back to a semblance of order since we finally have heat back and aren’t spending our day shivering. A clogged valve was the culprit.

The cats seemed pleased that we are back. Inky has been a little clingy for her but now seems to be fine.

So plans for today include cleaning up the kitchen now that I have hot water again, laundry because hot water, and putting things away. Later in the week I have to do some puppet repair and then send the puppets off to their new owners. More on that when I know they got to where they needed to go.

I had best get started.

I am grateful that we went on Vacation.

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